Love Acknowledged
by BlueRubyBeat
Summary: James Potter always annoyed Lily Evans in school. She would never return his love, she hated him...right?


**Love Acknowledged**

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling does.

 **AN:** Captain of the Tutshill Tornados for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition - Round 5

 **Prompt:** Red rose (as inspired by Rose Weasley): Write about a character in love during their time at school.

 **Word Count:** 1,349 words

"Avada Kedavra!" — Speaking

'Knowledge is power!' — Thinking

 **~.~**

Hogwarts in the winter was a romantic place. Students would take their girlfriends or boyfriends out on a walk while sticking close for 'warmth', create snow figurines to show off their artistic skills, or even have a winter picnic with hot chocolate and a blanket snug around them to keep them close. In this particular moment two students were having a heated moment in an empty corridor.

"What is wrong with you?!" A fiery redhead yelled angrily with her fists balled at her sides.

"What is wrong with me? I didn't do anything wrong!" A dark brown, messy haired individual replied with a smirk etched on his face.

"Of course you did! Stop scaring the first years! How many times do I have to tell you this Potter?" The girl argued back, she looked like a dragon spitting fire.

James Potter lifted his hands up as the universal sign of surrender, "You got me…but I did not scare them. It was a little harmless fun Lily-Flower."

That nickname did not lower her temper, in face it did the opposite. " _Stop_ calling me that! You-You-" She couldn't finish her sentence as a scream of frustration left her throat. "Why do you affect me like this?"

"Because I'm just that awesome! Or maybe you are finally falling for me and returning my feelings?" He replied, his cocky smirk growing wider.

Lily looked at him with narrowed eyes and pointed her finger at his chest. "I do _not_ like you in the least Potter! Just stop hurting the first years or I will turn the Gryffindor points in the red." She then turned away, her vibrant red hair whipping around her.

James watched her walk away, his eyes glued to her backside. 'She looks so hot when she's angry…' He thought as he kept her within his sight until she disappeared around the corner.

 **~.~**

'Who does he think he is? Acting like that?!' Lily thought as she power walked through the corridor to her dorm. She was too angry to do anything else and Merlin help her, if she saw anyone doing anything wrong she would probably deduct the maximum amount of points for the offense.

It did not take her long to reach her dorm. Before Lily could say the password, the woman in the painting asked her a question, "Are you alright dear?"

Lily looked up and replied, "Not really but I will be. I just need to get into my dorm. Lapifors." After uttering the password, the Fat Lady opened her painting and let Lily into the Gryffindor Tower. Some students were lounging in the common room and paid no attention to her as she briskly walked past to the girls dormitories.

Once she reached her room, she beelined straight to her bed, grabbed her pillow and screamed into it. It was quite a sight to her two dorm mates who were on their beds reading before she came in.

Once Lily finished her scream fest with her pillow, one of her dorm mates commented, "So what did James do this time?"

Lily jumped up in fright and whirled around to face the other girls with a blush decorating her cheeks. "What? Why do you say that?"

The first girl rolled her eyes while the second gave her a pointed look before replying, "You always get so flustered and act like you just finished a lovers spat when you're done talking to James Potter."

"Lovers spat?! That's preposterous! There's no love between us!" She huffed and threw her pillow on the bed.

"Oh Merlin…do you want to say it or should I?" The first girl asked the other and received a hand pointing to her as an answer. "Thanks."

She sighed before closing her book and looking at Lily directly. "The reason we call it a lovers spat is because that's what it is. James loves you and I think you like him too but you hide it behind your anger because you think you shouldn't love him. He frustrates you and gets you all hot and bothered, but it confuses you. Am I right?"

Lily just gaped at her with wide eyes. It took a few seconds for her brain to work again before gasping out, "W-What? I love him? No way! Why would I love that horrible, toe-rag of a man? A handsome…dashing…no no, annoying…cute…"

Lily groaned and flopped on her bed with her arms out. "Why did you have to do that? I was perfectly fine hating him and now…now you pointed out something I really did not want to acknowledge!"

The girls smirked at Lily and started singing, "Lily and James sitting in a tree, K. I. S. S. I. N. G."

Lily threw a pillow at each of them to shut them up and started a pillow fight that caused a whirlwind mess of a dorm in the aftermath. All three girls were tired out from their impromptu pillow fight and laying on the floor catching their breath.

"I'm still not going to ask him out or anything…he still needs to mature a bit more before I even agree to a date." Lily said.

The other girls laughed and one replied, "Well…at least that's a start."

 **~.~**

Now that Lily finally acknowledged that she was in love with James Potter, she found herself glancing at him more often. In classes she just told herself she was just checking his progress, but in reality she thought he looked cute when he was concentrating. His eyes were focused and sometimes his tongue would stick out just a little bit when he was concentrating on a spell. He was smart, smarter than he let on. That was a big turn on for her, he might not have studied as much as her but at least he had brains in that noggin of his.

Other times she would gaze upon him when she noticed he was in the court yard. James and his friends would just hang out and sometimes through a quaffle at one another in a form of catch. She would gaze upon his arms where his sleeves were rolled up and noticed how lean they were from constant quidditch practice; or she would gaze at the slight patch of chest showing from him unbuttoning the top few buttons of his white shirt.

His laughter also gained her attention. His laugh was deep and rich, she wanted to be the one to get him laughing. When James laughed, his eyes crinkled just a little bit and lightened with the mirth shining through. It seemed like she could not get enough of him. No matter when or where she saw him, he would endear himself to her just a little bit more without him even realizing it.

Lily Evans was falling in love with James Potter and there was nothing she could do about it. She did not even know if she wanted to do something about it. It just seemed right somehow, thinking of James this way.

"I think…I think I might give him a chance for a date," Lily said to herself as she smiled up to the night sky from her dormitory window. "Next year though, by then if he is serious in wanting to date me, then I'll say yes to a date and see where it goes."

"Go to bed Lily! We don't want to hear you sigh and talk about how much you love James right now. We're trying to sleep!" One of her dorm mates grumbled from her bed, her other dorm mate groaned in agreement.

Lily blushed scarlet in embarrassment and climbed into bed mumbling, "I didn't say I loved him…" She was smacked with a pillow for her comment, so she threw the pillow back, causing an impromptu pillow fight to start. Her dorm mates would keep her from showing her love for James until the time was right. Hopefully next year she would be able to show it, but at least now she embraced it.

 **~.~**


End file.
